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Foley close to getting gun group's endorsement

Neil Vigdor| on August 23, 2014

Keeping the gun lobby at arm's length is about to get a whole lot tougher for Republican Tom Foley.

Close to making an endorsement in the governor's race, the first statewide election since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, Connecticut's largest Second Amendment group is signaling it will likely throw its support to Foley in the coming week.

But Foley has been unwilling to say whether he personally supports a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines passed in response to Newtown.

Foley appears to have the upper hand over tea party petitioner Joe Visconti for the endorsement of the 15,000-member group, which took credit for Foley's Aug. 12 victory in the GOP primary over Sen. Majority Leader John McKinney, who helped draft the law.

Benedetto said he knows where Foley stands on the restrictions, which the second-time gubernatorial candidate has stated would have been much different had he been elected to the state's highest office in 2010 instead of Democrat Dannel P. Malloy and focused more on treating mental illness.

"As a gun guy who actually knows Tom Foley, I don't really need him to say those exact words," Benedetto, who is from Stratford, said of Foley's reluctance to be pinned down on various aspects of the law.

Foley contributed $1,000 to CCDL for a ticket to a July 20 fundraising dinner in Fairfield with former U.N. ambassador John Bolton. All of the proceeds from the event went toward the group's litigation fund, which is dedicated to overturning the restrictions that were signed into law by Malloy in 2013 with overwhelming support from the General Assembly.

Exploiting Newtown?

Foley, who last week accused Malloy of exploiting the Newtown tragedy to ram through onerous gun restrictions that would not prevent a similar shooting, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Malloy admonished his bitter rival in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media Friday.

"You don't normally hear someone be quite dismissive of 20 children losing their lives," Malloy said. "I guess his response would have been next to nothing."

Visiting a New Haven street corner where 15-year-old Jacob Craggett was killed in a triple shooting Aug. 8, Malloy expressed his shock and disgust at Foley's words.

"What is he for?" Malloy said. "I mean he's called for repeal of portions. What portions is he going to repeal? Does he support universal background checks? Does he support selling firearms that have been banned in the state for future sale? I know someone does a background check on me before I get on a plane, and I'm the governor of the state of Connecticut."

Connecticut's gun-legislation package expanded the definition of illegal assault weapons, banned gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition and mandated universal background checks for firearms and ammunition.

Malloy's surrogates say the law is working, and credited it with preventing a Litchfield woman, who had voluntarily committed herself to a mental health facility, from purchasing a shotgun this spring to shoot up Danbury High School to copycat the Columbine High School massacre.

New penalties

The law imposed tough new penalties on those who transport illegal assault weapons into the state, which the governor's surrogates said was the case last winter, when a University of New Haven student obsessed with the Aurora, Colo., movie-theater shooting was arrested on gun charges.

Convicted felons caught with a single bullet can be charged with criminal possession of a firearm under the law, as well.

Those on the other side of the debate said the weapons used in the December 2012 Newtown shooting rampage were legally owned by the shooter's mother, however.

"The problem is when you have somebody who's a psychopath living in your home and he kills you first," Benedetto said.

Benedetto said Foley recognizes the deficiencies in the state's response to the worst elementary school shooting in U.S history.

"I think he's a realist when it comes to the gun law," Benedetto said. "He has also made statements about how it infringes on our Second Amendment rights."

Foley's stand questioned

Visconti, a CCDL member from West Hartford, who successfully petitioned his way onto the general election ballot, questioned Foley's commitment to the right to bear arms.

"He'll say one thing and do another," Visconti said. "Tom Foley may believe it went too far, but he won't do anything."

Connecticut Carry, a 2,000-member group based in North Branford, similarly took credit for Foley's primary victory. Its president, Rich Burgess, wrote off Visconti.

"The issue is there is no other candidate who is going to win," Burgess said. "Foley's the only other reasonable option."

The group does not make endorsements, but said it stands ready to oppose Malloy.

Burgess does not view Foley, a self-described sportsman who owns two shotguns, as trying to keep a distance from Second Amendment activists. He understands why Foley is noncommittal on the restrictions.